Secretary Clinton: “It’s about the example we set… around the world.” @mitchellreports #HillaryClinton #hwhtw

Andrea Mitchell of NBC News interviewed Secretary Clinton in Turkey over the weekend. Sec. Clinton shared her view of America’s role in empowering women at home and abroad.

QUESTION: Many women during this period and – or campaign feel that their basic rights are under attack. Women really feel besieged on all sides. They call me, they write to me, you see it yourself. And I was at the Women in the World Conference when you said this: “They want to control how we act. They even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and our own bodies. Yes, it is hard to believe that even here at home, we have to stand up for women’s rights and we have to reject efforts to marginalize any one of us because America has to set an example for the entire world.”

SECRETARY CLINTON: Right.

QUESTION: What is happening in this political campaign?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I see it now from the perspective of having traveled so extensively, and we know that where women are marginalized, where they’re demeaned, where their rights are denied, there is the likelihood you will have less democracy, more poverty, greater extremism. The United States is the model. There’s been no place better to be a woman than in 21st century America. So we cannot allow any voices to be given credibility that would undermine the advances that women have made in our country. And I wanted to point out that it’s not only about American women, which of course is our first and foremost concern, but it’s about the example we set, the message we send to women around the world.

QUESTION: When Meryl Streep introduced you at that same conference, she said of you, “It is not a simple job to be a role model; it’s an enormous burden. But that’s what we ask of her.” Are you willing to take that on?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I don’t think of myself that way, but I know that I am considered that in the eyes of many people, and it’s a great honor. It is a burden.

QUESTION: The most popular woman in the world for 10 years in a row.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, that – it is a great honor, but it also carries with it a lot of responsibility, which I take very seriously. I feel such a great privilege representing my country, and in the role of Secretary of State, dealing with all of the front burner issues like the two we just talked about, Syria and Iran, but also continuing to advocate for the long-term changes like the fulfillment of women’s rights as unfinished business in this century, which is good for America and good for the world…